Curly Brace

Curly Brace
Portraits
Sprites
Information
Gender	Female
Abilities	Impervious to missiles, uses weapons
Faction	Surface Robot
Status	Alive (Good Ending) Deceased (Bad and Normal Ending)
Enemies	The Doctor • Misery • Balrog • Ballos

Curly Brace (カーリーブレイス Kârî Bureisu) is a protagonist of Cave Story. She, like Quote, is an armed scout robot, built to resemble a human girl.

Her mission was to destroy the Demon Crown along with Quote and put an end to the merciless slaughter of the Mimiga in the surface's attempt to claim its power. Along with her companion, she fought the current bearer of the Crown. Although she succeeded, she too was incapacitated, and subsequently wound up with amnesia.

Curly Brace is significantly more vocal and outgoing than Quote, a fact that is much more apparent in Curly Story. She is bright and cheery, and expresses joy when lending a hand. Likewise, she is also affected by negative events, as she is seemingly very disturbed about the effects of the war 10 years before. She is fiercely protective of the people she cares about, going as far as to attack Quote to defend the Colons from harm. She is willing to sacrifice herself for the people she trusts, as shown when she gives Quote her Air Tank, allowing herself to drown in his place. Misery comments that she is almost as unrelenting as Quote in Curly Story.

Physical appearance

Curly Brace wears a short tank top and baggy jeans that stop down at her shins. Like Quote, she has antenna/headphone-like "ears" attached to her head. She has long blonde hair and blue eyes.

Curly Story

After obtaining Curly's Panties in any version of Cave Story besides the original, a game-mode called Curly Story will unlock that allows the player to play through the main game as Curly, and with minor text alterations.

The player can also play as Curly in any of the challenges by picking "Original" music and "Original" graphics in the settings, choosing the Machine Gun Challenge and then quitting. Afterward your cursor will become Curly Brace and you can play as her in any of the challenges. The change is purely aesthetic.

History

Ten years prior to the events of the game, Quote and Curly Brace were sent to the floating Island during the conflict over the Demon Crown. Unlike the other robots sent to the Island, Quote and Curly were ordered to destroy the Demon Crown rather than recover it. As they arrived later than the other robots, much of the Island was in shambles by the time they arrived, with destruction and carnage everywhere. By the time they found the Demon Crown, a human - Miakid - had already found it first and unleashed its power. Quote and Curly battled him and successfully wounded him but were eventually defeated, and were incapacitated for the next ten years, causing memory loss.

Present

Curly reawakens some time after the ten years from their battle with complete amnesia (remembering only her name). Somewhere in or near the Sand Zone, she stumbled upon four orphaned Mimigas called the Colons. She decided to take them as her adopted children and lived peacefully until the Doctor's minions began roaming around the Island, kidnapping Mimigas. Before long, Quote arrived in the Sand Zone, where he stumbled upon Curly and the Mimigas she's protecting. Curly mistakes Quote for a "Killer Robot" and attacks, but ends up being defeated. Upon seeing Quote spare her "children", she realized Quote was not trying to eliminate them.

Soon after Quote's departure, Misery arrives in the Sand Zone and teleports the Colons to the Plantation. She then sends Curly to the Labyrinth, where her injuries are treated by Dr. Gero, who heals her. She then strikes out for the Boulder Room, where she meets up with Quote. After a scuffle with Balrog, the two continue further into the Labyrinth together until they come across and defeat the Core. Water then fills the room, and Quote would have drowned, if Curly had not given him her Air Tank.

If Quote has the Tow Rope, he can save Curly. Curly can then be carried to safety and treated by Quote. Unfortunately, the two became separated upon Ironhead's defeat. If Curly is not attached to your back after saving her and you go to fight Ironhead, you will never be able to get back to her as the door leading to the Core will be locked.

Curly later washed up in the Plantation, where she was found by Cthulhu. She had once again become afflicted by amnesia, no longer remembering even her name. Quote then found her, and traveled to the Mimiga Village Graveyard to find a mushroom to restore her memory - Ma Pignon. This restores all of her memory, including Quote's name (which she reveals for the first time in the entire game). Curly then gives Quote an item known as the Iron Bond. The Iron Bond's item description refers to Curly as "The only person you would trust your back to."

Curly appears once more in Sacred Grounds. Unlike all other times, she has the Nemesis, as opposed to her usual weapon, the Machine Gun. Quote straps her to his back with the Tow Rope and together they defeat Ballos. As Ballos dies, the walls begin to close in, but she and Quote are rescued by Balrog. The three of them then go and live together someplace nice.

Battle

Curly is battled alongside The Colons in the Sand Zone Residence. She is completely impervious to the Missile Launcher, as she will put up an energy shield that deflects Missiles if Quote fires any at her. The Colons will also get in the way and will block shots, although they can be knocked out to allow a clear shot at Curly. Curly attacks by charging her Machine Gun and firing a barrage of shots at Quote, then repeating. She can shoot up as well as horizontally, so she can hit Quote if he tries to jump over her. The best strategy is to attack her until she finishes charging, dodge her attack, then repeat. Any weapon except the Missile Launcher will work in this battle, although the Bubbline and the Fireball are preferable to the Polar Star because of their higher damage.

Weapons

• Level 3 Machine Gun
• Level 3 Polar Star (If traded Machine Gun to Quote for it)
• Level 1 Nemesis (Sacred Grounds only)

Cameos

• Curly is a playable-but-hidden class in Gang Garrison 2, she uses the Bubbler and Blade.
• Curly is an unlockable character in 1001 Spikes. She has the Booster 2.0 and her Machine Gun. To unlock her you need to collect all 30 golden skulls. Her theme music is a remix of the music from the Egg Corridor. She sports a different outfit.
• Is a boss in I Wanna Kill the Guy (Optional Boss)

Related Items

• Curly's Panties
• Curly's Air Tank
• Iron Bond

Trivia

• Curly displays the ability to create an energy shield (possibly the Air Tank's shield) to deflect Missiles during her battle with Quote, but never does this when fighting enemies afterwards. Quote also never gains this ability. It's unknown how Curly was able to use this ability.
• In the beta-version of Cave Story, Curly Brace was the name of the protagonist, but had Quote's sprites with a different color-scheme.
• Curly, like Quote, is named after a punctuation mark used in programming.
• In the original Story Mode, her headphone/ears are green, but in Curly Story, they are purple.
• During Halloween, Curly will wear a mechanical body armor. The design of the armor is a reference to Samus from the Metroid video game series.
• If you talk to Professor Booster in the Labyrinth granting you the Booster v0.8, the Tow Rope won't appear which will make you unable to save Curly from drowning.

Gallery

Image of Curly found in the Cave Story manual (levels adjusted)

Quote and Curly in Gang Garrison 2

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